JACKSON County hopes to be a team on the move in January. So far, they’re off to a good start.

Led by Kolin Zimmer’s 21 points, the Panthers (5-11, 2-4) downed rival East Jackson 57-45 Saturday at home for their second win in three games this month.

“We played a lot better together … the chemistry is starting to get there,” coach Britt Beaver said. “We talked all week about how much of a component that was.”

Jackson County beat East Jackson despite offensive catalyst Jared Scott sitting for long stretches on the bench in foul trouble, and Nick Corso, one of the team’s defensive specialists, being out. That left Jackson County with a rotation of basically six players.

But Peter Thao stepped up with a career-high 13 points, while Kevin Lineburger finished with seven points and Reno Messler with six.

“I was proud of the guys to step it up and play together,” Beaver said.

Zimmer nailed four threes and hit 7-of-8 free throws in leading the Panthers offensively.

Jackson County built a 30-20 lead at the half and withstood a third-quarter run by the Eagles to carry a 43-35 edge into the fourth quarter.

Jarron Davis led East Jackson with 19 points.

East Jackson coach Brian Turner said “you have to give Jackson (County) a lot of credit.”

“They really took advantage of us when we got in some early foul trouble on both ends of the floor,” he said. “It is hard to compete when you are putting teams on the free-throw line 35 times. This has hurt us in a number of games but we will go back to work and try to fix our mistakes and keep battling. I like this group of guys and expect us to turn things around before the end of the season.”

As for Jackson County, this was the Panthers’ first game in eight days, which they used to their advantage.

“We had a week to prepare, and we went back and worked on a lot of fundamental things,” Beaver said. The Panthers are perhaps rounding into form just as the second-half of the subregion schedule begins. The win vaulted the Panthers into fifth place in Region 8-AA South as the subregion rematches begin this Friday for Jackson County. The Panthers host North Oconee.

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